Gone Ghost
by Ryuuko1
Summary: Decades ago, Danny Phantom disappeared. Now, curiosity leads a new generation through the Ghost Portal-with Jasmine serving as chaperon.


**Author:** Mm...I love my DP Phandom. I doubt I'll ever be able to fully stay away. This was a piece that was meant to be a multichaptered fic, but I decided that I liked it better as a one-shot and that it would take more work than I'm willing to expend atm. I'm not sure this is even really _worth_ posting, but I'm doing it anyway, because I like the idea of full-ghost!Danny.

 **Disclaimer** : I've been writing fanfic for a long time-I still own nothing.

 **Gone Ghost**

"Jack, wait!"

I grabbed a hold of my son's collar before he could wander into the Ghost Portal and gave his two friends as disapproving a look as I could manage.

Jack squirmed in my grip and protested, "But, mom!"

I let him go and sighed. "The Ghost Portal is dangerous."

"It's not on," Kali pointed out.

I sighed. "That doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Da—someone very precious to me walked in there once, thinking it was off and actually turned it on from the inside."

"What happened to him?" Taylor pressed, intrigued.

I shook my head. "You want to see the Ghost Zone?"

"Well, yeah," Jack said and rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, you and gramma and grampa talk about it all the time. Or you used to."

I rubbed my eyes. "The Ghost Zone is a dangerous place," I said. "If you're going exploring, I'm going with you."

"Mom!" Jack protested as his friends parroted, substituting, "Mrs. Jacobs!" for mom.

"Hey, I used to _use_ all this stuff," I said coolly. "That way you won't be walking in defenseless. Ghost Zone ghosts aren't like the ones you know about."

Kali rolled her eyes as Taylor and Jack exchanged nervous looks.

I dug through the storage bins that all the weaponry was stored inside and found the box that would unfold into the Fenton Speeder. Once I felt appropriately outfitted, I pressed the button on the top of the box and the Fenton Speeder unfolded to the astonished cries of the teens.

"All in," I said and opened the door on the passenger side. "None of you are old enough yet, so I drive."

"It's not really a car," Jack muttered, but took shotgun, his friends relegated to the back seat.

I walked over to a long unused panel and hesitated over a large red button. It had been years since the Ghost Portal was last opened. I was still unmarried when it was shut down—ghost activity had diminished to nothing and all probes sent in returned with no data, so there was no reason to keep it active.

"Mom?"

I sighed inwardly and pressed the button. After a breathless moment of nothing, a spark formed deep within the device before blooming into a neon green swirl.

My son and his friends gasped.

I climbed into the driver's seat of the Fenton Speeder and turned it on. My hands rested lightly on the wheel and my stomach abruptly twisted with apprehension. It had been decades since I had visited the Ghost Zone. Who knew what could have changed?

"Mom?"

I gave my son the best smile I could manage. "It's been a while since I've gone into the Ghost Zone."

"You've gone in before?" Jack exclaimed, eyes wide.

Apparently he hadn't expected his mother to be quite so awesome. "A long time ago," I said with a small smile. "Now, off we go, eh?"

I put the Speeder into drive and we flew into the Ghost Zone.

It was as disorienting a transit as I remembered. It lasted only a second, but it briefly felt like I was drowning in ectoplasm. When I could breathe again, it was to see a Ghost Zone unlike the one I remembered.

We exited into what looked like a city. There were towering spires that seemed mimicries of skyscrapers, houses and apartments twisted into odd shapes, and all throughout a dim hum of ghost activity.

I drove through the 'streets' slowly, and ghost scattered before our progress, apparently terrified of us, which was…odd. Most ghosts I remembered wouldn't bolt in the presence of a human.

Our progress was abruptly halted and we all jolted forward in our seats. I quickly stepped off the 'gas' and my attention was drawn to the figure before us.

It seemed to be made of living shadow, although had a humanoid form. Its shoulders were broad and there was a small clasp at its left shoulder, which made me think that it was wearing a cape. Its fingers were tipped with jointed, bronze claws. Its face was covered with a mask and it was wearing a bronze visor that hid its eyes. The cape would sometimes flutter enough to reveal that the ghost—well, I assumed it to be a ghost—had legs that sported shin and knee guards of the same bronze, along with shoes that ended in vicious-looking spikes.

"What have we here?" it said in a baritone masculine voice. "Humans? In the Ghost Zone?"

"We mean no harm," I said, hiding my weapons as best I could.

He seemed distinctly amused. "Of course not. But, let us take this conversation elsewhere, somewhere more comfortable."

There was the strangest sense of vertigo and then I was looking at a completely different scene.

It was all very muted, very Spartan, very masculine, but we had been teleported, I assumed, to this ghost's abode.

"Please disembark. I'd rather not talk to you through a windshield."

The teens gave me an uncertain look and I sighed. "I would like to know that me and my passengers will not be harmed."

"If I had wanted to kill you, you'd be dead," he said calmly. "But it's been a long time since humans visited the Ghost Zone, so I admit that I am…intrigued. You will not be harmed as long as you're with me, I promise."

I swallowed, and stepped out of the Fenton Speeder. My son and his friends followed me cautiously, and the Speeder folded back into its compact case.

"May I ask who you are?" I asked slowly.

I had the distinct feeling he was amused again. "Introductions, hm? Fine."

The ghost released the clasp on his claws and placed them delicately on a nearby table, and kicked the shoes off casually, embedding them in the wall—but it was obvious that was where he usually stored them from how the wall seemed to accommodate them. "I'm the Warden here. Most people call me that."

I frowned. "Isn't Walker—"

He snorted and untied his greaves. "Oh, him. He's been demoted. Although it's curious that you know of him."

I felt his attention shift to me as he pulled down a hood I hadn't known was there and removed his visor and mask.

The cloth and visor had hidden a surprisingly youthful face…if one looked beyond the scars. Starting at his left temple and running down his face in a curve to end at his nose and the corner of his lip were two parallel diagonal scars, obviously the work of claws. An eye that probably should have been blinded by the strike was instead simply a pool of vibrant, glowing, green, but it was a shock compared to his other eye, which was almost _human_ , if it hadn't been for the inhuman eye color. His hair was pure white with a streak of midnight black running through it in a lightning pattern and when released from the hair clasp that held it back, fell to just below his shoulders.

It felt familiar, in an odd way.

"Now, care to tell me your names?"

"My name is Jasmine Jacobs."

He seemed strangely suspicious of my name before turning his attention to the teens. "And you three? What are yours?"

"Jack Jacobs."

"Kali Goldberg."

"Taylor Foley."

He frowned at Taylor's last name, but it was the briefest of expressions. "Jack. Kali. Taylor. Very well. Now, Jasmine, I assume that you are their chaperon. Why visit the Ghost Zone? It's a very strange and dangerous field trip."

"It was either I show them around or they blunder about," I replied and he gave me a wide, mischievous grin that was disturbingly familiar.

"You three would've caused quite the stir—not that you haven't anyway. But, then, Jack, Kali, Taylor—why the Ghost Zone? I've tried very hard to keep ghosts safe from humans and humans safe from ghosts. I don't need anyone undoing my efforts."

"Well, you see, gramma and grampa used to study and hunt ghosts, and they would talk about the Ghost Zone a lot," Jack said. "And they mentioned a Ghost Portal, so we decided to check it out."

The ghost hummed, then turned and removed his cloak, hanging it up on a hook. "Ghost Portal," he said slowly.

The outfit he wore beneath the shadow-cloak was achingly familiar, but it _couldn't_ be him. Still…black, skin-tight suit with silver boots and gloves, they reminded me of another, younger person.

"I thought I closed them. I suppose that time has weakened my locks or, perhaps, they were reactivated from the outside. Is that it? A Ghost Portal was reactivated? Surely not Plasmius', he ensured that it would never open again."

He turned to face us and my breath left me. On the chest of his suit was a very familiar symbol—a symbol I hadn't thought I'd ever see again.  
"Danny?" I asked, my voice a pained squeak.

He blinked slowly. "Now _that_ is a name I haven't heard in years."

"Danny?" Jack repeated and I shook my head firmly. Later. I would explain later.

"Danny Phantom? Danny Fenton?" I continued and his frown deepened.

"Who did you say you were, again?" he asked.

"I gave you my married name," I said hurriedly. "My married last name. My maiden name was Fenton. Jasmine Fenton."

He blinked. "Jazz?" His eyebrows rose sharply. " _Jazz_? What the hell are you—you're married?" His good eye darted to Jack. "With children? And I assume that these other two are Sam and Tucker's kids?"

I nodded. "Danny, where…why did you…?" I asked, my heart breaking. I had thought my brother dead, and yet here he was, claiming to be a major influence in the Ghost Zone, that he had worked to separate the two realms, in fact.

Danny's face closed off. He gestured casually and the teens slumped, unconscious. I yelled in alarm and caught my son, but Danny's voice cut through my panic: "They're merely knocked out. They don't need to hear this."

I placed my son gently to the ground and smoothed the hair over his forehead. "Are you Danny Fenton?"

"Am? No. Was? Yes."

"What happened to you?" I asked and turned to face him.

He was quiet, pensive, and then sat down in a chair that morphed out of the floor, one appearing beside me, presumably for my use. I sat cautiously, not wanting to do anything that might provoke this Danny I had found.

"The Ghost Portal modified my genetics," he said after a silence. "Cells divide, DNA is replicated, certain genes are activated, others are suppressed. It took two years, but eventually it was my ghosts genes that expressed, not my human." He smiled, although it was, surprisingly, not bitter, but merely resigned.

I looked at my hands and bit my lip. "Danny, we would have _been there_ for you. Mom and dad knew, they accepted you, so why…?"

"Jazz, I'm _not human_ anymore," Danny replied. "I don't care about the things humans do. Sure, I tried for a few days, but my humanity fell away quickly and I didn't want to do anything to you all. I still loved you then, enough to want to protect you from me."

I felt the threat of tears sting my eyes, but I fought them down. "You could have at least _said_ something. Left a note."

Danny shrugged. "You would have hunted me and I wouldn't've cared enough to not fight back with lethal force. I have…mellowed since then," he finished with a wry smile. "Although I think that comes simply from the sheer responsibility I've taken on."

"What happened to the Ghost Zone? It's…"

"Different. Different from what you remember. It took me cutting ghosts and humans off from each other, but I've managed to force a kind of…ghostly civilization to exist. Now ghosts occupy each other, no more peaceful than the human world."

"You said you were a Warden. Of just this city?"

Danny snorted. "Oh, no. Plasmius and I share control of the Ghost Zone."

I stared. "Vlad is alive?"

"Alive being a relative term," Danny drawled. "It took him dying to succumb to his ghost half and make the transition. So, is Vlad alive? No, but he exists in Plasmius."

"And you share the Ghost Zone."

Danny shrugged. "It's complicated."

"I bet," I muttered.

Unusually comfortable silence fell between us before Danny spoke again.

"When you leave, close the door behind you," Danny said softly. "Or show me it and I'll destroy the connection from this end."

"But, Danny—"

"Why would I want to visit you? Why would you want to come here? You obviously have your own life, I have mine."

"But what if your human genes express?"

"There are countless temporary portals I could exit through," Danny answered. "Although given that I'm not alive and my cells don't divide anymore, I doubt that will happen."

I caught my brother's eye and said, "We miss you, Danny."

Danny smiled wryly. "I think I missed you too, a little, and at first. Mom and dad have moved on?"

"They gave up ghost hunting; it wasn't worth it to them anymore when they had lost their son to it."

"But they remained inventors?"

"Cutting edge, in fact. Their…unique perspective has provided a lot of advancements."

Danny nodded. "And Sam and Tuck?"

"Married and with children, both of them. Sam married a nice Jewish boy, a lawyer, who she met when attending school for poli sci. She's an employed activist these days. Tuck met a girl at MIT, they got married once she got her PhD. Tuck took up the Fenton's profession and is now and inventor himself."

Danny nodded approvingly. "Good."

"And you?"

Danny shrugged. "Helped mold the Ghost Zone into what you see it like now. A mirror of the Human World, complete with cities and civilizations and wars."

"You wouldn't want a world of peace?"

Danny quirked his good eyebrow. "If it were peaceful, I'd have to deal with patrolling the border between the Ghost and Human worlds. As I don't want to do that, I let the ghosts occupy themselves with each other."

"And you and Vlad—"

"Plasmius."

"—you work with Plasmius?"

"Work being a loose term."

I fell silent and looked at the teens collapsed nearby.

"And anyway, I don't think that you want a ghost as an uncle."

I whipped back to him and found a small smirk on his face. "He looks like you."

"Perhaps there is some humanity in you yet."

"Perhaps," he agreed. "Enough to protect the human world, at least."

"Which you'll continue to do?"  
" _Ad infinium,_ " he drawled. "I can't die."

"How have you become so smart when you didn't attend anything past junior year of high school?"

Danny smiled, and the expression sent shivers down my spine.

My son groaned and Danny sighed. "I believe I should send you all back to the Human World and slam the door behind you. Don't try to come back, please. Get rid of the blueprints, destroy the portal itself, whatever you need to do to make sure that there's no connection. It's best if the two worlds remain separate."

"But you had to unite both ghosts and humans in order for Earth to survive. Without Earth, the Ghost Zone goes."

"And without the Ghost Zone, Earth vanishes— _if_ the two are connected."

"If?"

"Mom and dad broke a barrier with the proto-portal that allowed the Ghost Portal to even _function._ With the destruction of the Fenton portal, the wall will be restored and neither ghosts nor humans will have to worry about anything more than natural portals that occur."

"So you can stop most of the bleeding, but not all."

Danny shrugged. "Such is how things work. Now, please. Go back to the Human World and forget about me. I can erase their memories, if you want me to."

"No!" I protested heatedly. "I'll…make some excuses. They won't believe me, but they have more important teenager things to deal with than just some crazy bullshit that their friend's mom fed them."

Danny snickered. "Reopen the Fenton Speeder. I'll follow you to the portal and lock the door behind you."

"But, if in any way you return to being human, or even half-ghost…"

"I know," Danny said. He stood, walked to me, and put a hand on my shoulder. "I'll contact you first. But, like I said, I doubt that we'll meet again. Just know that you always have someone on humanity's side in the Ghost Zone."

Before he could walk away, I surged to my feet and grabbed him into a hug. He jumped in surprise before he relaxed and wrapped his arms around me, too. I fit just beneath his chin, his height marginally annoying.

He pushed me gently away, and with a casual gesture his gear was back on him, his face and body hidden. "I'll load them on, then you lead the way."

I nodded slowly, taking in the ghost that my little brother had become, committing him to memory. I would always remember Danny, remember him when he was a stupid teenager, just getting a hang of his ghost powers and getting into all sorts of insane adventures, but I also wanted to know him as the ghost he had grown into. Because, regardless of what he had done or who he had become, he would always be, in some strange way, my brother, and I planned to make sure that he wasn't forgotten and was known for his service to humanity, no matter how bizarre and skewed it might be.

He loaded the children into the Speeder before I stepped in and started the engine. Danny reached out and I felt invisibility and intangibility envelope the machine and its occupants, and I sped off, him attached like some kind of bizarre ghostly angler fish.

It was sad, meeting him only to have to part. But, I was no longer a part of Danny's 'life' and he had no place in mine, except as memories. I wouldn't let mom or dad know of his existence, but I would do something, _something_ , so that everyone would know that Danny Phantom had eventually made the ultimate sacrifice and given himself up to make sure humanity, that everyone he cared about, remained safe from any more ghostly incursions.

It would be an interesting tale to spin.


End file.
